The Winter Permit System is no longer in effect so get an early start! Freezing levels will rise this afternoon and stay high. When the surface crust breaks down the snowpack will become unstable.
Weather Forecast
Building high pressure over the region will give us sunny skies and start to drive temperatures up. Freezing level is forecast to go up to 3700m today which will give us an Alpine high of 13 deg. Winds will be S-15kph & there's no precip forecast in the next few days. Most models show freezing levels staying above 3700m until the middle of the week
Snowpack Summary
The melt-freeze crust on the surface is over 10cm thick, with the top ~5cm breaking down to "corn" by early afternoon. The crust will become weaker with forecast warm overnight temps. A treeline profile yesterday showed an isothermal snowpack with consistent temps of 0 deg & the top 1.5m moist or wet. N'ly asps above ~2300m still holding dry snow
Avalanche Summary
Two days ago a N facing slide path off Mt Green produced a sz 2 wet slab. Otherwise there has been little avalanche activity lately due to good overnight freezes of the snowpack. This will change with the forecast high freezing levels. Expect glide-cracks to become more active, which are opening up on many slopes and can fail unpredictably
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
Wet Slabs
Wet Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) that is generally moist or wet when the flow of liquid water weakens the bond between the slab and the surface below (snow or ground). They often occur during prolonged warming events and/or rain-on-snow events. Wet Slabs can be very unpredictable and destructive.